Hispanic and Latinx Heritage Month: Primary Sources

What is a Primary Source?

A primary source is a first-hand account of an event, time period, or philosophical era.

A primary source may include:

• diaries, journals, speeches, letters, interviews, office memos and other papers if the author was present at the event being written about
•  memoirs and autobiographies which are describing events that the author was present for
• government documents, such as census records
• reports and minutes of organizations that reflect events, conditions and ideas of the time
• books, journals and newspapers written at the time of the event in question
• photographs, audio tapes, and film that document an event
• research data documenting scientific data at the time
• artifacts of all kinds, which may include buildings (architecture), household items, cave drawings, clothing, paintings, pottery

Primary sources do not include:

• memoirs or autobiographies that reflect on an event that the author was not present for, unless it reflects the popular opinion of the time
• a critical analysis of a work of literature that was written much later than the actual work
• documentation of ideas or psychology of a time may be found in popular fiction, films, educational material etc produced during that time period
• a critical analysis of an historical event that was written much later

Purpose

This is a selected bibliography of primary source collections pertaining to Mexican American history available online. Please note, the library is not responsible for the content on these sources and it is the student's responsibility to properly cite from the proper location. There may also be secondary sources included in these collections and it is up to the student to evaluate if the item qualifies as a primary or secondary source.